* Join Us!! Rally to Save the Pygmy-Owl: Wednesday, October 8th The Tucson Audubon Society is hosting a rally to highlight the status of and advocate for the protection of the Cactus-ferruginous pygmy- owl. The rally will be held at the Tucson Audubon Nature Shop at 300 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ, on Wednesday, October 8th, from 5:30- 7:30pm.

There will be social opportunities & snacks, habitat restoration demonstrations, and presentations from representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Tucson Audubon Society.

Please join us! Learn more about this critically endangered bird and what you can do in your own back yard to support its survival! Learn how to enhance your back yard habitat for birds and other wildlife through on-site demonstrations. Bring a postcard or stationary to pen a letter to your elected and appointed officials. Come prepared to meet like-minded birders and conservationists alike and, most importantly, to have fun!

Hope to see you for this important event! Endangered species need our help more than ever!!

* Please Help the Coalition with a Financial Gift!

Over the past five years the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection has established itself as the key organization that has worked to enable and ensure the creation of a Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP) that meets our community’s conservation goals and standards. You, as one of the Coalition’s supporters, are the lifeblood of the Coalition and its efforts.

We are now in final twelve critical months of the public process before Pima County takes the SDCP to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for federal approval. We must mobilize and energize Coalition group memberships and the general public that already supports protection for the Sonoran Desert’s natural resources and biological diversity, reach members of the general public who have yet to hear our message, and ensure accurate information is available. We must demonstrate to the Pima County Board of Supervisors that a vast majority of our community supports a Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan that preserves the wide array of wildlife and habitat that make up the Sonoran Desert ecosystem.

Our upcoming work includes a media campaign, expanding a speakers bureau, actively supporting and helping ensure passage of the May 2004 Bond Election, giving regular presentations to neighborhood and community groups, working on the 2004 State Trust Lands initiative, and much more.

To do all this work we need your support. Please invest $250, $100, $50, or whatever you can afford =96 and know that we will put your money to smart use in the fight to protect the Sonoran Desert. If you can give a larger gift of stock, it will help even more. Send your donation to 300 E. University, Suite 120, Tucson AZ 85705, or call Kevin Gaither-Banchoff at 869-4673.

* Scoping Meeting for the Environmental Impact Statement for Pima County’s Multi-Species Conservation Plan, Saturday, October 4 A public scoping meeting will be held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to solicit comments on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that it will perform on Pima County’s Multi-Species Conservation Plan. The EIS will examine possible alternatives for the County’s conservation plan and the impacts of those alternatives on various aspects.

The meeting will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 10am in the Pima County Public Works Building, Basement Conference Room C, 201 N. Stone Ave., Tucson, AZ.

Comments regarding considerations for the analysis of these alternatives can be given at the meeting, or written comments can be sent to Mr. Steven Spangle, Field Supervisor, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2321 West Royal Palm Road, Suite 103, Phoenix, AZ, 85021. COMMENTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY OCTOBER 27, 2003.

To read the Federal Register notice of this meeting, including background, proposed action, and alternatives, go to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/ and type in (exactly as shown) "Page 53748" AND "Pima County MSCP" under Quick Search. The first result in the search is the entry you want; you can choose to view in HTML, PDF, or a Summary document.

* SDCP Update As some of you may know, the Coalition anticipated that the County would be releasing a draft of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan at the October 4th scoping meeting mentioned above. However, this is not the case=97-the County is now talking about a release sometime in November. The Coalition is planning a forum for mid-November to discuss our recommendations for the plan, so we’ll be sure to keep you posted on these events!

On August 28th, the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, joined by Congressman Raul Grijalva, hosted a public forum to highlight the management planning process now being undertaken by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the Ironwood Forest National Monument (IFNM). There were informative presentations and lively discussions on the special features of the Ironwood Forest National Monument and specific challenges that need to be addressed in the management plan. The Coalition plans to have the proceedings from this forum posted on our website at http://www.sonorandesert.org by the end of October.

If you missed the forum, but would like to be added to the mailing list for meeting schedules, information, etc., please call BLM’s toll free telephone number, 866-331-1795, or email Larry Shults at larry_shults@blm.gov. The Ironwood planning effort will soon have a website that the public can access for the latest information about planning, meeting schedules, reports, etc., plus they will be able to comment directly on the Ironwood plans. Scoping comments are being analyzed and the results will be posted on the web site in the near future. The web site is expected to be operational around December 1, 2003.

* Open Space Bond Update The bond committees appointed by the Board are very busy working to develop recommendations on the upcoming May bond election for the Board. The Open Space Advisory subcommittee and the Neighborhood Reinvestment subcommittee are due to give their recommendations to the Bond Advisory Committee in October. The Bond Advisory committee will consider these recommendations, plus other community needs that are being solicited from the jurisdictions located in Pima County, and give a recommendation on the final bond package to the Board of Supervisors by the beginning of December. Since the Board voted to put an open space bond on the ballot, many other requests for bond funds have been made. The Coalition representatives on the committees will be working hard to ensure that adequate funding for conservation goals is contained in the bond.

If you are interested in helping to promote the open space bond within the community, please contact Carolyn Campbell, Friends of the Sonoran Desert Outreach Committee Chair, 388-9925.

* State Trust Lands Reform The attempt to reform the Arizona constitution and related statutes to allow conservation of State Trust Lands is still progressing. The original deadline for finalizing the language to be used in the initiative was September, however, the conservationists at the table are still working hard for a reform package that achieves immediate conservation for some significant State Trust Lands, recognizes conservation as a legitimate use in the constitution, and enhances the management and monitoring of state-leased lands.

We all know the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” A recently released Vox video about wildlife crossings demonstrates this. Grab a cup of coffee and take a look at this great introductory video about wildlife crossings, why they are so important, why we should build many more, and how they are cost-effective […]

July 10, 2017 Tomorrow morning the Pima County of Board of Supervisors will be voting on two important resolutions that support: 1) Pima County’s participation in the County Climate Coalition and specific goals and actions in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement, and 2) important water quality protection goals. Can you attend this meeting and […]

June 7, 2017 By Kathleen Kennedy, CSDP Associate Director Did you know that mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and elk migrate hundreds of miles each year in Wyoming? Fairly recently, scientists discovered that various herds of these ungulates migrate every summer and winter. Many of them summer in Yellowstone National Park, then fan out to the north, south, east, and west […]

Do you think we should construct a new interstate in between our treasured Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument? The Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration are currently accepting public comments (deadline is this Friday, June 2!) on proposed corridor alternatives for a new interstate between Nogales and Wickenburg. [Want to read […]

The Coalition is a fiscally sponsored project of Sky Island Alliance, a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions for the purposes of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.